FILE - In this March 4, 2014, file photo, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott talks to supporters during his victory party in San Antonio. He won the Republican nomination for Texas governor. On Wednesday, March 5, 2014, the state of Texas emerged from the nation's first primary of 2014 looking solidly Republican as ever. Now the Texas governor's race really begins _ and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis insists that, yes, it'll be a race. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Photo: Associated Press

FILE - In this March 4, 2014, file photo, Texas Attorney General...

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Attorney General Greg Abbott leads a get out the vote rally at Rita's on the River on February 26, 2014.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is joined by family as he gives his acceptance speech at Aldaco's Sunset Station after winning the Republican nomination for Texas Governor, Tuesday, March 4, 2014. He will face Democrat Wendy Davis in the November general election. In back his daughter, Audrey, left, and his wife, Cecilia Phalen.

Photo: San Antonio Express-News

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is joined by family as he gives...

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Wendy Davis has slammed Abbott for not answering whether he would have vetoed the equal-pay measure she sponsored last year.

Photo: Associated Press

Wendy Davis has slammed Abbott for not answering whether he would...

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AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 4: Republican candidate for governor, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is accompanied by his wife Cecilia, left, and daughter Audrey as he arrives to vote in the Texas primary at Western Hills Church of Christ on March 4, 2014 in Austin, Texas. Abbott is planning to make stops in Houston and Dallas for get out-the-vote rallies ahead of the elections. (Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images)

Photo: Erich Schlegel, Getty Images

AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 4: Republican candidate for governor, Texas...

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Volunteer Daniel O'Leary hands Senator Wendy Davis his phone so she can talk to a voter he called as she calls voters and thanks volunteers working at the phone bank at her campaign headquarters in Fort Worth on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.

AUSTIN — Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott would have vetoed the equal-pay measure sponsored by his Democratic opponent for governor, state Sen. Wendy Davis, his campaign said Wednesday.

Abbott's answer meets a key Davis campaign issue head on and puts the candidates squarely on opposite sides of it.

The development comes as Abbott faces renewed attention over differences in salaries paid to men and women assistant attorneys general at his agency, which were reported Wednesday by the San Antonio Express-News.

Davis has been pressing Abbott to say whether he would have vetoed the state version of the federal Lilly Ledbetter law if he were governor, just as GOP Gov. Rick Perry did last year.

The federal law, named after a woman who sued over pay discrimination, changed the statute of limitations in federal cases so that allegations could be brought 180 days after the last alleged discriminatory paycheck was received. Previously, the clock started running in federal cases when the discriminatory payments began.

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Davis' bill would have made the same change in state law. Backers said that would allow people to bring their cases in state court, a potentially quicker and less expensive avenue.

Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said in a statement, “Because wage discrimination is already against the law and because legal avenues already exist for victims of discrimination, Greg Abbott would have not signed this law.”

Asked whether Abbott would have vetoed the measure, Hirsch said yes.

A governor can sign a bill into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Find more on the salaries paid in the Attorney General's Office, including a database of the top 300 paid employees, on ExpressNews.com.